change of scenery?

Lately I feel like if my life were a color, it would be grey. I'm just kinda bored. But whose fault is that?

All this contract/future talk has me thinking about where I'll be going and what I'll be doing a year from now (and both of those are a big "I don't know"), and I think that thinking about all the potential for new places and things and people has me a little bored with my life right now. I think I'm also a little depressed because Tommy and Mike will both be gone soon, and Sara will be gone too in a few months, and that bums me out.

Also, I'm going through one of those funks at work where I'm like, "Uggggh I just don't feel like doing this!" All we had this morning was swine flu stories. That's it. And I was like, "There are other things going on in the world, right? Surely we can find something else to talk about." Nope. All swine flu. And especially since it hit Indiana yesterday, it's a big deal right now. But come on, a whole show about swine flu?! Yuck.

I've got lots of things to be excited about -- "So You Think You Can Dance" starts up soon, which will be a new experience for me, and Jillian will star in "The Bachelorette" soon as well! I have one more car payment to make and I'll be officially done, which means puppy time, and I'm currently putting out feelers for pug breeders (so if you know anyone, let me know!). And I just got time off approved for my SECOND vacation of the year (holler!), which will include my cousin's wedding and a week at Mom and Dad's newly-built cabin up at the lake! That's not till August, but still.

And all my adorable little High School Musical friends will be home for the summer soon, which (I hope) will mean more trips to Culvers for ice cream, afternoons by the pool, and weekends in Monticello! Summer!

So what's not to be excited about, right? I just need to get myself pumped up for all the fun stuff coming my way and stop feeling like my life is so boring.

Oh, final note -- and girls, back me up if you get this too -- the last two days I've had these lovely dreams involving beautiful beaches or lakes and dreamy dudes, which NEVER happens. I always have the weirdo dreams, not the sweet ones. But of course, I'm having these super-sweet dreams and then I wake up before I want to. Then I can't go back to sleep and back to my dream! But when I have a sucky dream, I either can't wake up, or I do shake myself out of it, and then fall back asleep only to enter Crazy Town all over again. So not fair!

Oh well. I'm gonna go to bed now and attempt a sweet dream that doesn't involve me waking up before I absolutely have to.

Happy daydreams! :)

Ten Things

(Yay, even the title starts with T!)

OK, so Kelsey let me in on this game where you are assigned a letter and then you name ten things you like that start with that letter. So heeeeere we go!

1. Tap dancing - I was just talking to someone about this last night at musical rehearsal, actually. We were both agreeing that tap dancing is so fun because it's so hard and yet once you learn it, you could do it in your sleep. Also, it sounds really cool.

2. Time off - I don't get a lot of time off, so on weekends and rare vacations, I really live it up...which usually means sleeping a lot! Haha!

3. Talking - ask anyone. I love to talk so much it's insane. You can probably tell by how long my blogs are, because if I were talking to you instead of writing it all down, it would be a lengthy conversation. I love talking about shows, movies, philosophy, religion, and even politics sometimes. I just love to talk!

4. Television - I know it's my job, but I honestly do really like TV. Not just working in it, but watching it. Sitcoms, dramas, reality shows, news, sports, the Disney Channel...I even like watching commercials!

5. Technology - (Cue Kip from Napoleon Dynamite: I love technology, but noooot as much as you, you see...but stilllll I love technology, always and forever...) I am so bad at keeping in touch, so I thank God that I have a cell phone with people's numbers saved inside, and Facebook, and email! And GPS for the car! (Not really for keeping in touch, but for not getting lost lol).

6. Theatre - "The theatre, the theatre...what happened to the theatre?" White Christmas, anyone? Anyone? Yeah, if you have read some of my previous posts or know me at all, you'll know that I love going to see plays and musicals as well as performing in them!

7. Traveling - This is something I really enjoy, but I would like to do more of. I was lucky that I got to travel a lot in college with the Purduettes, but since then it's been tough to go anywhere. But I love flying and I love airports, and I love road trips! I don't even sleep most of the time! And I truly believe that half the fun is getting there. And the other half is getting back. No, I'm totally kidding! :)

8. Tank Tops - (Is this like Scattergories? Do I get more points for that one?) Aren't tank tops great? You can wear them in the summer, layer them under stuff, sleep in them, put them over your swim suit...so versatile! And thanks to places like Old Navy, you can get them in pretty much every color ever.

9. Tube socks - I started wearing these this summer to play softball, and then I started wearing them to HSM rehearsals, and then we all started wearing them all the time! They are fun and comfortable and (like tank tops) come in many colors!

10. Tina Fey - my hero!!! Hire me, Tina!

OK, that's my Then things that start with T! Thanks, Kels, for letting me play! :)

vacation day 3

Yesterday was an eventful day. And on top of that, I think I'm finally adjusted to normal people hours, so I couldn't even stay awake late enough to blog about it last night.

So here we go...

9:30 AM - My cell phone alarm goes off. I wake up and think, "It's kinda dark in here," because when I went to sleep I'd left my Christmas tree lights on (remember I was sleeping out on the couch because my bed was covered in stuff I took off the floor for the carpet cleaners). So I go to my bedroom to shut off my actual alarm clock before it starts blaring...and there are no red numbers on the clock face, which tells me that the electricity must be out.

Cooooool.

And I can't figure out WHY the electricity is out because while my laptop does operate on battery power, the wireless internet router in my building does not, so I had no information outlet. So I just curled back up on the couch, thinking terrible thoughts of my friend Tommy and his 57-degree apartment when his heater wasn't working, and wondering how cold it would get in here after a day without power.

10:15 AM - The power comes back on. So much for my dramatics! I get on my station's website and find out that a power line pole just down the street caught on fire, and that's why our electricity went out. And Kelsey told me later that a car crash caused that to happen, which made a lot more sense because I was starting to wonder if there had been a lightning storm overnight or if power line poles just spontaneously combust these days.

10:30 AM - I get a call from Kate, the director for "Children of Eden," the civic show I auditioned for the previous night. Here is where she cast me:

-Act 1: a "storyteller" (basically the chorus) and the Snake (which as far as I can tell is an ensemble thing with a lot of dancing and tight harmonies, which sounds very much like something I would enjoy)
-Act 2: Aysha, who is a daughter-in-law of Noah (like Noah and the Ark)

And I just have to say that is the fastest casting in the history of mankind. I have never heard back within 24 hours of auditioning before! That was awesome.

So I text my friend Chris, who also auditioned, to let me know when he gets his call.

11:45 AM - A trip to the eye doctor to check up on my diagnostic contacts, make adjustments, and then order new boxes. Luckily this trip to his office didn't last two hours like last time.

1:30 PM - I check my email and there's one from Mom and Dad, who are up North moving furniture into their new lake cabin. They have sent pictures and Brrrr it looks cold up there!

1:45 PM - Chris texts me back. He is playing Adam (like Adam and Eve) in Act 1 and Noah's son Shem in Act 2, which means we will be husband and wife. That's awesome since it's always kinda weird to pretend to be married to someone you don't even know, you know?

So all afternoon I'm working on other things around the house, washing dishes, taking out the trash, and waiting for the carpet cleaners to show up. Finally, I call the office to ask what the deal is.

"They couldn't come today because the electricity was out," they tell me, which doesn't really make sense to me, because the electricity was only out for the first 15 minutes that our building's office was open. So I ask them when the cleaners will be coming, and they say tomorrow (meaning today, Wednesday). So I just decided to take down all the furniture so I could have friends over to play cards.

6:45 PM - Bethy calls and we get caught up and have a good conversation about how people should just handle their own business. Or bidness, as Amy Poehler would say (Baby Mama, anyone?).

7:00 PM - Tommy is here with Reese's Christmas Trees, and Caitlin and Troy are not far behind, followed by Kelsey, followed by a hilarious game of Phase 10, which it turns out is NOT an old-people's game like some of my co-workers thought! I would love to recount in detail how this game went, but I will just say it involved Troy needing to charge up his energy-drink slap-bracelet every couple of rounds, Caitlin being sad because she didn't get to play a single card for the first few hands, Kelsey and I revealing or remembering rules at inopportune times for Troy and Tommy, a table discussion about why "My Favorite Things" is considered a Christmas song, which led to a discussion of what "schnitzel with noodles" might consist of, and Tommy "technically" skipping Phases and "technically" winning and needing to check the rule book for loopholes at the end of the game. It was fun. I hope we get to do it again.

11:00 PM - I have a voicemail from Molly, one of my beloved little college freshmen and HSM buddies. She has a paper she wants me to look over for her, so I call her back and she emails me the paper. I do a little proofreading, email it back, and decide it's time to call it a day.

Now, this morning I woke up and put all my furniture and stuff back up and out of the way because the carpet cleaners are supposed to come this morning, although the office didn't know what time they'd be here, which again, seems strange to me. Maybe I'm asking for too much detailed information, but I feel like I'm just asking for normal information that would be really useful. Anyway, I was amazed at how fast I could carpet-clean-ready my apartment this time! I'm getting good at this.

Also, I was excited to find upon logging in to my blog that Kelsey has uncovered the mystery of what schnitzel with noodles is. And after a little reading, I found out that schnitzel is apparently veal and in Germany is considered "a hearty winter meal," which may be a contributing factor in the whole Christmas song issue: "snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes," "bright paper packages tied up with string," "doorbells and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles!" And then, after some further reading, I discovered that Rogers & Hammerstien messed up big-time because according to this blog, Maria and the von Trapp family, all proud Austrians, would have eaten schnitzel with french fries! Huh!

Well, you really do learn something new every day. Until later!

the good, the bad, and the stupid

The Good:

No, wait, actually let's get The Bad out of the way first, shall we?

The Bad:
Still no chairs. Unbefreakinglievable.

Ok, here is the story --
As I've mentioned before, we wanted to order new chairs for the studio's interview set, and Mr. Promotions Guy told me THREE times (once in writing, no less) that he would be able to buy them for us as long as the total cost was under $1000 and we bought them before the end of the year; promotions basically had some extra money in their budget that they had to get rid of before the end of the year, so he was willing to spend it on the new chairs we wanted for the studio.

I delivered on my end of the deal, finding a chair model of the appropriate size, color, shape, and PRICE -- quoted at $274 per chair (so $822 total price for three chairs; well under budget, if you didn't notice) -- and gave Mr. Promotions a photocopy of the chair as pictured in the store's catalogue as well as a written quote and contact information from the store. About 24 hours later, I checked in to see if he liked the chairs and if we could get them. He told me he was "this close" to working it out with accounting.

WHAT?! What happened to having the money in the budget?!

OK, fine. So that was like three weeks ago.

TWO weeks ago, still no news. With the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided not to sweat it; the normal 9-to-5 folks in Promotions and Accounting wouldn't be around anyway, so nothing was likely to get accomplished.

ONE week ago, I checked in again via email:
"Hey, how are things going with the chairs?"
"Just trying to do some creative budgeting to make it work."

WHAT?!?! What happened to being "this close?!!"

TODAY, I see Mr. Promotions Guy and wanted to chew him out completely, but instead, I said, "Any progress on the chairs?"
"Weeellll..." Mr. Promotions Guy says, "We just have to get it approved...see, it's all really stupid the way it works, like, it's money from MY budget, but we have to get it from another account, and then THEY have to take that money from OUR budget, and..."

The way you talk, all I hear is blah blah blah.

"OK, keep me posted," I say, hoping that hints his need to get this taken care of.

Seriously, if he wasn't actually in control of the money in the first place, why would he tell me what he told me in the first place? It wouldn't be as big of a deal if he'd have just said, "I can't promise anything, but if you try to keep it under $1000, there's a better chance we'll be able to swing it with accounting."

But instead he remodeled his office and then left something that EVERYONE could use, like the new interview chairs, to the uncertain fate of the accounting department.

What stinks is, I really like this guy and I think he's trying to do a lot of good things for the station. And I really like what he did with his office. But it's like the time I bought a new outfit and then found out one of my paychecks was coming a month later than I thought it would. You don't spend money you don't have, or in this case promise to spend money you don't have.

Frusterating.

The Good News:
1.) It's Friday. Holla! (Yep, that just happened.) And that means all the good Friday things that come with it, including new episodes of 30 Rock and The Office that I watch Friday mornings online (and by the way, this week's Office episode is about the place where I work! Crappy copier, crappy chairs, budget surplus!!! It's too perfect. It absolutely made my day and gave me an easy way to laugh about how ridiculously inefficient things seem to be around there sometimes).

2.) I am officially on vacation! I'm not going anywhere, but I will have lots of time to do Christmas shopping, read, relax, maybe do some video editing, go to the gym, and also do some of that day-time stuff I don't normally have time to do, like eye and hair appointments. Plus I get to sleep at night like a normal person!

3.) I get to go see Justin's play tonight! Justin is pretty much me in a 6-foot-five boy's body. (Scary, huh?) This kid thinks like me, loves movies, musicals, and music, and all of the trivial information about them, as much as I do! I always tell him he's the little brother I never had. He is also a very talented and enthusiastic performer and I am so excited to see him onstage tonight! I've seen so many plays this fall thanks to all my little civic theatre buddies...so much fun!

4.) There is a package in the mail on its way to my door, which is always super-fun! I got a gift card to Victoria's Secret for my birthday, but didn't use it until now, and today I tracked my order and it is on its way out of Missouri. It's so fun to track packages; it's kind of like watching cookies bake in the oven -- if you can see the progress, it's a little easier to wait for the final product!

The Stupid:
1.) Here's the situation: I get home from work this morning. I'm holding my purse and lunch container in one hand and a stack of books and my keys in the other. So my hands are a little full, and it's a smidge chilly outside. The way it works at my apartment is, you can get in the first set of doors without a key, but you have to unlock the second set, and it's an oldish set of doors, so you have to jiggle the key in the lock a little bit, you know what I mean? It's not like a magnetic strip card or anything. And there's kind of this unspoken but universallly understood rule of common courtesy that if you're inside the building and near the front door, and someone who clearly has a key to the building is trying to get in, you go open the door for them so they don't have to mess with the key. Especially if they've got stuff in their arms. Now, if the person is a creep, just standing there waiting for someone to let them in, you should keep the safety of yourself and your fellow building dwellers in mind and let the dude fend for himself. But I'm saying if their key is in hand, indicating that they clearly belong inside the building, you go ahead and let them in.

OK, so back to me at the door this morning, with arms relatively full, fumbling with my key. There is a girl standing right in front of and I mean RIGHT IN FRONT OF the front doors, wearing her fuzzy slippers and bathrobe, flipping through a magazine or newspaper insert or something. I am trying to unlock the door and she is staring right AT me and just stands there, thumbing through whatever glossy piece of publication she's got. It is taking me longer than usual to jiggle the lock and get the doors to open, and she WALKS AWAY.

Seriously?!?!!

2.) There was like a fifteen-minute span this morning during which I could not make calls with my phone. A friend called me while I was still at work this morning, and I silenced the call. On my way out to my car, I tried to call my voicemail to see what he'd said, but my phone kept showing this "call failed" message. So then I tried to make just a regular phone call and the same thing happened. I finally tried calling my phone from my landline when I got home, and my cell phone wouldn't pick up the call. So then I decide to just check the voicemail through my landline phone, and I put in the password to get into my voicemail THREE times, and it wouldn't let me in. And I know I was putting the correct password in, because I watched myself punch the numbers and even said it outloud the last time as I dialed, but still no dice. So then just as a last shot, I try calling my voicemail again from my cell phone, and it works. Then I call my friend back...the phone works fine.

So I dunno what that was all about.

3.) This is stupid, but not in a bad way. Yesterday I had a dream that I met Amy Poehler, which is weird because earlier that day (don't ask me why), I was thinking about what celebrities I would most want to meet, and I came up with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Kristin Chenoweth. And I don't usually have the kind of dreams where something happens to me that I was thinking about that day; I usually have the kind of dreams where my teeth are falling out, or someone is chasing me but I can only move in slow motion, or I'm trying not to be shot or stabbed. Yes, I do not tend to have pleasant dreams. If they are on the more enjoyable side, they are usually totally random and have nothing to do with what happened the day before. But yesterday in my dream, I met Amy Poehler and we wanted to get our picture taken together but no one would take a picture. Like, people kept getting out their cameras and we kept stopping our conversation to smile at them, but then the people with the cameras would never actually take the picture...they'd just look at us through their viewfinders and then go back to what they were doing.

Analyze THAT!

(See, that was stupid, wasn't it?)

OK, that's all I've got. I'm officially on vacation. Yay!!!

Until later!

We Need a Little Christmas Now!

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever!

Okay, LOTS of stuff to cover. First of all, Thanksgiving was great. We had a good show, and then I went home to K-town to hang out with my family and watch the parade, which much to Marla and my delight included Kristen Chenoweth singing the Christmas Waltz on a float with the Care Bears! I noticed that I tended to watch all of the marching bands and color guards a lot more closely than in previous years, too. My dad and I made commentary on all of their costumes; he knows how much I dislike color guard uniforms in general so we were trying to pick out the good ones.

I have to admit I got a little cranky at my Mamaw and Papaw's...We had a wonderful dinner, which of course made me sleepy, on top of the fact that I hadn't slept yet. Then Mamaw wanted us to decorate their Christmas tree, which is great, but it's a big tree and there are a lot of ornaments, and after awhile I realized I was the only one hanging them up, and got a little pissy when my mom asked me if I wanted to take a nap...

"No, I want to do this, but nobody's helping me!!!"

So then Mom, Dad, Aunt Julie, Mamaw, and Marla hopped up and helped me finish the tree. That made it a LOT more fun. Then when I got ready to leave, Mamaw was like, "You have to leave already? Do you have another party to go to or something?" And of course the rest of the family is like, "She has to go to work, Mom!" Haha.

Mom packed up left-overs for me, which was awesome! And I drive back and went to bed.

Friday morning at work was actually really easy. I got my show done really quickly, which was good because that gave me lots of time to get prepared for my live shot at the mall. And the live shot went really well; I was super-nervous at first, but after I got the first hit under my belt, I started to get more comfortable. And when I got back to the station, I found out that apparently everything was going wrong right before the show--people hadn't gotten to work yet because they'd overslept, one of the cameras went down, the teleprompter went out--but luckily everything got ironed out. And Baron was back to directing that morning for Kim, who had the day off, and he is so, so calm in crisis situations, so he set the tone and they all got through it just fine. And we didn't have any problems out at the mall; it was actually really fun! But I definitely have a new appreciation for what our anchors and reporters do!

Friday afternoon was fantastic as I got to meet a bunch of my HSM kids for lunch at McCords (yummy!) and then we went to my apartment to watch some videos I'd made from our summer. Then I spent the rest of the day with Justin, who is like the little brother I never had, Christmas shopping and getting his oil changed. Then his mom called and told us to bring back a pizza and watch chick flicks with her (so cute). We dug out the Christmas Show DVD from 2003, which we were both on, and found the points where we were standing next to each other--so funny! We were the same height, even though he'd been a 12-year-old member of the Kid's Choir and I was a freshman in college! (He's like 6'5" now.)

I came home that night to find Fish (my male betta) looking very sickly. He had been looking pretty rough that morning when I came home from work, so I had put him in a smaller bowl (fishy intensive care), so he wouldn't have to swim or move as much to get to his food, which he wasn't really making an effort to eat anyway. I was not very hopeful that he would recover, although he's surprised me in the past, but I wanted to give him a chance, so I tried to get him to eat before I went to bed, but he was struggling just to stay right-side-up. So I put the fish bowl in the kitchen and went to bed.

I slept in Saturday morning, then finally got up to see if Fish had made it through the night. He hadn't. I did a little ceremonial flush, cleaned out his bowl, put his little castle up on top of the microwave, and put his food away in the cupboard.

Poor little Fish. He's been through a lot with me. He got me through my first year living on my own. He got me through a couple of break-ups, and through a couple of holidays that didn't feel like holidays because I was working. He listened to me practice for civic theatre auditions and sit down occasionally to butcher songs on the piano, and he never complained once. He was always happy to see me when I came home from work every morning and he would wake up in the middle of the night to keep me company when I couldn't sleep during the weekends. Fish was a good fish, and I'm thankful for the time I got to have with him.

Anyway, after putting Fish to rest, I didn't really have anything to do, since I'd done all my house-cleaning Friday morning. So I finally decided I'd just put up my Christmas tree and decorate the apartment for Christmas. That was really fun, and it definitely got me back in the holiday spirit!

And then, this morning I went outside to go to church, and it was a winter wonderland! My initial reaction was, "Whaaaaat." But then a smile immediately crept onto my face as I sloshed outside to brush all the snow off of my car. I had no idea we'd get that much snow overnight! So now I'm sitting here at my desk, with the window blinds open so I can see the snow-dusted trees and picnic tables outside. I'm sure this will melt away pretty soon, but it was such a fun surprise this morning!

OK, I think that's all. You're now caught up on my life for the moment.

Until later!

turkey lurkey

Of course on the day that I don't have to wake up early, I just go ahead and wake up early. Maybe some blogging will get things out of my head and then I can go back to sleep!

I am so excited for Thanksgiving this year! Don't get me wrong, I always look forward to it, but I usually don't actually get count-down-the-days excited for it like this. I've always been a huge Christmas fanatic, so for me Thanksgiving always kind of marked the beginning of the last stretch before my favorite holiday. In high school, Thanksgiving could never be fully enjoyed because finals and school projects were looming overhead, not to mention the early-morning swim practice the Friday after Thanksgiving Day.

And in college, Thanksgiving was just a quick oasis from Christmas Show rehearsals and classes. And what did I take home? My Christmas Show music and my textbooks. And in college, I was in Christmas mode by the beginning of October, when the Christmas Show concept was unveiled and we started rehearsals. So by Thanksgiving, it had been Christmas for like a month and a half.

Here's the thing that got me most excited about Thanksgiving: the Macy's parade. Because back before YouTube, that was pretty much one of my only chances to see glimpses of Broadway musicals (the other chance was in the summer when the Tonys were on). I would always have my mom wake me up in time to watch the parade with her, and I would figure out the best strategy for flipping between the major networks so I could view the most performances possible.

But this year, I'm proud to say just how excited I am for Thanksgiving, not as the second-born child to Christmas, but completely on its own merit. Now that I have this job, I don't get any time off for Thanksgiving. It's just a full work week during which I drive to a relative's home one day to eat turkey and hang out with relatives for awhile before driving back and going back to work. And I think that makes me appreciate it more. And this year, I only have to drive as far as Kokomo to my grandparents, which will be a piece of cake! And then I'll get to take home some scrumptuous left-overs, which soothes the pain of having to go back to work that night. And everyone is coming home for Thanksgiving break...all of my little HSM buddies! So getting everyone together for the first time since August will be so exciting! And thankfully (ahh haha) we've all kept in touch, so it won't be that weird thing where everyone comes back from college and doesn't know each other anymore. I don't think. Anyway, I'm just super-excited about Thanksgiving this year...going home, eating turkey and cranberries, catching up with friends...it's gonna be great.

And hopefully I'll be able to catch some of the Macy's Parade after work that morning!

Oh...and there may be a potentially exciting piece of news regarding me, the mall, a microphone, and the day after Thanksgiving. But we'll have to see what happens. I'm gonna leave it at that.

Until later! :)

What Makes Me Happy

I am wrapping up what has turned out to be a GREAT weekend.

Let me tell you why.

First, I had an wonderful meeting Friday with my boss. I still don't want to spill the beans on this work stuff, but I can basically tell you that things are going really well at work! Which is really good, because there's still a year on my contract there and with my upcoming anniversary, I've been thinking about where I want to go next and what I want to do. I've always liked producing the morning show, but after a year I was starting to think of all the bigger, brighter, shinier things that must be out there. Because the honest truth is, if I stay where I am now, I've got nowhere to go. I can't go to the evenings unless I wait out the contract of the evening producer, and then what if she doesn't want to leave? And even if she did want to leave, I don't really want to move to the evenings anyway, because I love the people who work in the mornings, and as crazy as it may sound, I actually like working while everyone else is sleeping! In fact, I'm seriously considering looking for a morning producing position for my next job. And sleeping in a coffin and sucking the blood of humans and living forever. Just kidding...I just get the ol' vampire joke quite a bit these days. And wouldn't that be a fun way to freak out people when out for dinner as a new girl in a new town?

"Hey, what do you do?"
"Well...I work at night."
"Oh, the graveyard shift, huh?"
"Yessss, you could say that."
"When do you sleep?"
"During the day."
"Yeah, it must be killing you to be up right now when the sun's out, huh?"
"You have no idea."
"So when do you eat?"
"Whenever the opportunity presents itself."
"Right, I guess this would be more like breakfast time for you. Is Italian OK or would you rather go somewhere they serve breakfast?"
"It's fine. Just...nothing with garlic."
"Hmmm, allergic? Well let's just start with a glass of wine. White or red?"
(Spooky smile)...
"Red."

OK, the fact that I took that long to type that out is proof that I should probably stay on the morning side for the sheer fact that I'm a humongous dork. Annnnyway, back to work...where the great thing is that now I still have something to look forward to and get excited about at my current job, rather than just look ahead to when my time's up and I can leave.

On with the weekend!

After work and a solid 5 hours of sleep, I went to a friend's house for dinner with a bunch of friends I haven't seen in awhile, especially Issa, who's home for the first time since going to IU! I love that girl so much and getting to hug her and talk to her NOT on the phone was so refreshing! After dinner, we met up with some more HSM buddies and their friends for "My Best Friend's Girl," at the movie theater. There I got to see Landon, who was also home for the first time since going to IU. And even though we were at the movie theater, we were able to do a little catching up and mostly hugging, which is the best!



This is why we love each other.


So good to see this guy!


My weekend continued Saturday with the Twin Lakes Marching Band Invitational. We had practice in the morning with the color guard girls, so I spent the 45 minute drove over there thinking about how I was going to spend the time between noon and 6:00 without driving back here. Luckily Ethan, the color guard head coach, already had that figured out. He surprised me with tickets to good ol' Indiana Beach and a visit from a couple of friends we used to go to Purdue with! We rode all the rides and spent time sitting and catching up with each other's lives and people watching (IB is a GREAT place for people watching!) and it was a great day! Then we went back and watched some of the bands perform before eating dinner in the staff lounge and then getting our girls warmed up to perform.

We performed in exhibition since we were hosting, but the girls did the best I've seen them do yet. They finally seem to get the concept of smiling even when someone messes up or drops a toss, and I was so proud of them! We also found out that if we HAD been competing, we would have won our division! Our scores were some of the best we've had so far, which was encouraging for the kids. And boy, did they need it. Friday had been a traumatic day at Twin Lakes because four students had been killed in a bus accident and everyone was naturally pretty somber. We dedicated our show to the memory of those students, and our band director had tears in his eyes as he was talking about it before we went on the field. I think the kids, in a small way, needed something like a great score recap to encourage them Saturday night.

I was so pooped by the end of the day that I took no time at all going to sleep when I got home at 12:30 AM. When I woke up, it was Sunday morning and time to go to church to see the Purduettes! The girls sounded great and it was so good to see some of those girls and hear about what's going on in their lives. It just made me proud to be a part of that organization.

So yeah, overall an awesome weekend! Hopefully that will carry into my week with this new project at work still on the line...

Until later! :)

Coming Up...

OK, there are a few fun and exciting things in my life I want to talk about, but some of them are still pending and others of them I still need to go through pictures/video for, so this blog entry will serve as a tease for future blog entries! (Can you tell I work in television or what?!)

So here's what's ahead on "Do You Have to Like Coffee" this fall!

I got to see my favorite comedian ever, Brian Regan, right here in downtown Lafayette tonight! How I got free tickets, who came to the show with me, and why we laughed our butts off, coming up.

Because of going to see Brian Regan, I missed the season premiere of "The Office," so I'm going to have to watch it online tomorrow. Check in soon to get my reaction and see if my predictions about last season's cliffhangers were right!

As I finish my first year of producing here at the station, I've got big plans for Year #2! We're giving the morning news show a makeover! New faces, new features, and new furniture, coming soon!

Alright, that's it. I know, I am a goofball. But that's just who I am. And I'm also wound up because of all this fun stuff going on, and because my friend Issa is coming home this weekend from IU and I'm so excited to see her! Issa was Gabriella in the production of High School Musical I was in this summer. She is such a sweetheart and we got really close this past summer, so I can't wait to give her a hug!


So inappropriate. Love it.


OK, one more random thing...I am sitting at work right now, and I can hear snippets of Austin Powers movies playing from the sports office across the hall. Well I snooped around the corner, and our sports director is sitting there at his computer watching clips of Dr. Evil on YouTube! Ha!

Mmmkay, that's it for now! Stay tuned!

i could do this forever...

I am about to run off to Broadway.

Not really. But it amazes me how much joy you can get out of doing something. And I get SO much joy out of performing!

We opened "High School Musical" last weekend, and we had two really good shows. And I think this is the coolest thing I've ever done...maybe even cooler than Christmas Show. And that, for me, is saying a lot.

It's just the best of everything. My favorite play I've ever been in. My favorite role I've ever played. Cute costumes. An awesome set. Huge depth of talent in the cast. Super-nice, amazing people who have become great friends. Fun, challenging choreography. Super-fun music. Fireworks! And a built-in fan base of kids from 4 to 14 who go absolutely nuts over anything HSM-related.

I haven't gotten to do any real performing in about a year, so I just felt absolutely spoiled performing in front of a full house Friday night! There is something about hearing the applause, the laughs, and feeling the electricity surging between the house and the stage that I absolutely love. And when the lights went down on our last note Friday night, I watched the fireworks popping overhead and heard the cheering audience, and it just washed through me and overwhelmed me, and I got tears in my eyes. I missed this. Then Caitlin grabbed my hand and ran up the hill with me from the backstage area to the front entrance to the house. Ryan checked to make sure I had an autograph pen, which I had but felt a little presumptuous holding on my way up to meet the audience. Out of nowhere, Adrienne appeared next to me and shoved a mint in my mouth. These guys are pros, I thought. And then there were people everywhere. People I knew...Kels, Isaac, the Hainje girls, people's parents.

And then there were kids. Everywhere. All around, holding up their programs for me to sign! Some of them grabbed my hand, eager to shake it, and some were so shy they could barely muster up the gumption to look at me. There were parents encouraging their kids to be patient while I tried to sign every piece of paper thrust anxiously in front of me. They wanted hugs. They wanted pictures. They wanted their HSM t-shirts signed. They wanted to talk to me. They wanted to hide behind their moms. It. Was. Awesome.

I think that was what really made it special for me...those kids were sooo excited about that show, and so beside themselves with enthusiasm, that it made me feel so good to have been a part of something that they were so excited about! And the parents were so appreciative. I can imagine long weeks for some parents with kids counting down the days until HSM, buying tickets and t-shirts, and probably hoping the excitement would die down at some point so they could get the kids to go to sleep that night. You could tell it meant a lot to them for us to meet their kids and spend a few moments with them. I can't imagine what it's like for people who do this sort of thing every day. I'm sure it gets tiring, but at the same time, what an incredible phenomenon to be able to make a kid happy just by saying hello or signing a book or a piece of paper. That meant more than all the applause, definitely, definitely.

And this weekend we get to do it again!

I feel like I could do this every weekend forever; it's just that much fun. I know that after this weekend, my life will be back to normal. I will be the girl sitting at the computer all night and behind the cameras all morning; the girl that no one sees, hears, or knows about. The person pulling and pushing invisible strings and buttons to put a show on the air. The girl no one recognizes in public. But that's ok! I am so happy to have had a little part in people's lives for just one evening...and hopefully to have made some kid's day by talking to them and sending them home with a picture and a piece of paper with a pink signature on it.

Sweet dreams!
Lis

Email, Snail Mail, and the Music Man

What a great day! It started out quite rainy, which was a little bit of a bummer as I headed out the door to meet some of the HSM cast for lunch. But I decided to check my mail on my way out, and what should be in the mailbox but my new swimsuit! I didn't have time to try it on; I just took the package with me in the car.

Lunch was great. One of the members of our party just got back from a vacation in Mexico, so it was great to hear about his trip and catch up! We had a really awkward waitress, and for some reason, I always seemed to be the person who made matters worse, even though I was trying to make things better...everything I said as a joke or to ease the tension ended up sounding rude! Oh well...I left her a big tip, so hopefully that made things better.

One of the kids in our group is as obsessed with musicals as I am, and we ducked into the nearby Borders to see what shows they had on DVD. And I found the Disney made-for-TV version of "The Music Man," which I had always wanted to see but until now hadn't had the chance to. I'm watching it right now, and it's great fun. Probably not as good as the original, but equally as enjoyable for different reasons. An all-star cast, delightful choreography, and all the sweet, soft, squeaky-clean sets, costumes, and cast a Disney movie could ever conjure. I love Matthew Broderick, and his smooth, fast-talking Ferris Bueller really comes through in the character of Harold Hill. Kristen Chenoweth is pretty much my favorite Broadway person ever, and she brings a freshness and sass to the role of Marian Paroo that I have never seen. I always tend to get bored with the songs Marian sings in the show, because they are these super-soprano, old-fashioned warbly numbers, but they did a great job with the orchestral score on this, making it much more interesting. And Kristen has the unbelievable ability to combine her opera-trained pipes with her Broadway chops to kick these songs' butts. This was my favorite---



OK, going on...

So I got home after lunch and Borders and hopped on my laptop, and what did I find in my email's inbox but a note from the girls at Whatever Hollywood! I had left a little post on their blog saying I liked their stuff. It was so cool of them to write back! Anyway, soon the sun came shining out through the trees and I decided to try on my new suit and hit the pool. And now I'm comfy on the couch, laptop in my lap, watching "The Music Man."

And I just have to say...I LOVE musicals! They just make me feel so good inside!

OK, until later!

just like oprah...but without all the free stuff.

It's my favorite things! Disclaimer: I totally copied this idea from Kels (check out her blog for her favorite things--it's a great compilation!) I tried to run the gammot of random interests, but it was hard to narrow things down and I'm sure that as soon as I finish this blog post, I'll think of a few things that I love and think, "How could I leave that out?!!" I even squeezed extra favorites in by highlighting them in bold even though there's not a picture for some of them. Like I said, hard to narrow it down.

Here we go!


First of all, I can't tell you have many times a day I Google things. I am truly a child of the Information Age. I even used Google Images to find most of these pictures!


Since the days of Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire, I haven't ever quite outgrown the DC. I know it's cheesy and over-the-top, but it's also fun and very cute, and who doesn't love Disney Channel Original Movies? Plus, the fact that I check in on the Disney Channel from time to time is very helpful in babysitting situations, because I actually have stuff to talk about with the kids.



My job! I love my job so much that a lot of times I forget that I "go to work" every day...or I guess I should say, every night. And I know I have it better working in the mornings because the people are great and compared to the daytime/evening hours, it's a lot less stressful! The people I work with are all hilarious, sweet, and easy to get along with. I love my job!



Arrested Development is one of my newest TV addictions, and I am so glad msn.com has given me the ability to watch all the episodes online for free! I did buy the first season on DVD though, and I will probably buy the other two as well. This show is hysterically funny and because of it I am so in love with this guy...

...Jason Bateman. Except for in Juno, where he played a guy that was a total loser at life. But seriously, watch his interviews for Juno with Michael Cera...so cute!

Bateman and Cera played father and son in "Arrested Development" and were never actually on screen together in "Juno" but they got to do this press junket/EPK stuff together, which was great! Too bad Jason is already happily married with a kid (becaaaause I would have a better chance of marrying him then? Whoa, dream big!)



While we're talking about guys I love but can't marry because they're already taken (and famous), let's talk about this guy right here. Bill Hader has this quirky quality that I find totally appealing. Oh yeah, plus he's hilarious. You can find him on Saturday Night Live and in movies like Superbad, Hot Rod, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.



Every time I see one of these camera commercials, I want to marry this guy. Again, not a possibility. But Ashton Kutcher is so lovable not only because yeah, he's hot, but also because he's got his stuff together. A true Midwestern boy, he has a goofy guy-next-door comedic appeal that works for him despite his model looks. And he's successfully gone from TV sitcom acting to producing his own TV shows as well as remaining an in-demand leading man in several different genres of film. Plus, he does these cute commercials!



Now onto something I love and can have whenever I want: Baja chicken chalupas from Taco Bell. They are my absolute vice. I don't eat them often because I know they can't be good for you, but every once in a while, I treat myself to this delicious, spicy, carb-loaded bundle of delight. Yum!



Put this on just about anything and I will eat it. JIF extra-crunchy peanut butter is a staple in my home. That and toilet paper.



CAPAKIMAJU is my grandparents' cabin on Kjostad Lake in Orr, Minnesota. It is my favorite place in the world and I'm so excited to go this summer! I think that when I go to heaven it will be a lot like Kjostad Lake.



Ralph Lauren's Romance perfume is my favorite scent. I got my first (and only) bottle my freshman year of college and I am finally running out, so...I will probably be asking for it this Christmas!



This, to me, is the best TV show ever. And I'm pretty sure I mean that. The Office has figured out how to make me feel happy, uncomfortable, sad, mad, in love, and ready to pee my pants from laughing all at once. It also has the magical ability to cheer me up in emergency situations.



I love Waiting for Guffman and all of the other movies Christopher Guest has created with his hand-picked improv troupe extraordinaire. And another thing I love is that people from this group keep showing up in Arrested Development and The Office as well as in Judd Apatow movies...it's just fun to see where and when and how they will pop up next!



I am just tickeld by Teen Girl Squad and most other things from homestarrunner.com. Even the introduction to the website cracks me up! I always want to quote this stuff in conversation, but it can only be with a few people I know who have watched it enough times to know what I'm talking about. I've been enjoying this website since my senior year of high school in newspaper class.



Another website I enjoy visiting is www.dorm-life.com, the homepage for a web series in mockumentary format (similar to The Office or a Chris Guest movie) about a group of college kids living on the same floor. They recently ended the first season and I am already stoked for more!



And while we're talking about fun shows on the web, I also wanted to highlight Whatever Hollywood, who I've talked about in my blog before. I suggest checking them out because they'll be famous someday!



Any excuse I can find to eat with chopsticks, I will do it. I don't know why, but I love eating with chopsticks! I even have a couple "permanent" pairs that I wash with my silverware and use again!



I love Purdue. So much. I bleed gold and black. Go Boilers!!!



Oh, Reese Witherspoon. If there's any one celebrity I love no matter what, it's Reese. She is beautiful, funny, smart, and so talented. And she's 5'2" like me! And you can make fun of me all you want, but Legally Blonde will always be one of my favorite movies.



I am kind of obsessed with this girl. Which is kinda weird, I know, because she's like my age. But not only do I love Ashley Tisdale for being Sharpay in High School Musical, I also think she is a great role model for the kids in her audience. She doesn't drink, smoke, or go to the clubs, and therefore she stays out of all sorts of trouble that her peers have gotten into. And I just saw the trailer today for her new little made-for-TV movie that premieres on ABC Family July 13th. The same weekend as we open our production of High School Musical in which I play Sharpay! See, obsessed. I even bought her first recording album when it came out last summer.



Also obsessed...with these two. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are awesome not only because they are so funny, but because of all the other cool things they stand for. The first all-female cast of Weekend Update on SNL, they are also very good friends and, from what I can tell, really cool people. I love Tina's series "30 Rock" on NBC, and I love her adaptation of the book "Queen Bees and Wannabes" to its film version, "Mean Girls." Amy Poehler joins Reese and Ashley on my list of favorite blondes. I love and imitate to exhaustion her character "Kaitlin" from SNL, and I think that she and husband Will Arnett (Arrested Development, 30 Rock) have to be the cutest, funniest couple ever. And I loved "Baby Momma."



My parents always say if I went to New York City I would never come back. And they would be correct. I have never been, but when I do you can bet I won't leave before seeing at LEAST one show on Broadway. I love keeping up with what productions come to the Great White Way every season, and I even get excited for the Tony Awards every summer! I know it's dorky because I'm out here in Indiana, but I mean, whatever.



And finally, I love jeans. I think I wear them literally every day. I love them. I know, who doesn't? But really, what would we do without jeans?

OK, so those are some of my favorite things, in no particular order. And now I'm hungry for a chalupa so...I might have to go do something about that.

Until later!
lis

One Year Later...

I just thought I'd take a little personal inventory and reflect on where I am a year after starting this blog and, essentially, starting my life as a grown-up.

I recently re-signed the lease for my apartment. I've been living here by myself for almost a year (I moved in last July). When I moved, I was holding down two jobs: part-time production assistant at the station, and pretty much full-time waiting tables. Plus working in the nursery on Sundays, so techinically three jobs, although the nursery doesn't really count because that's only like 3.5 hours a week, if that. Now I am a full-time, contracted news producer. I still do the nursery thing.

I have paid off half of my car, which is exciting. So another year from now, I will be done making car payments! I decided that will be the time for me to get a dog. It seems like good timing; I will have freed up some financial obligations and be more capable of taking good care of a pet. I still want a miniature schnauzer.

I have ended two dating relationships since starting this blog, so now I am single. And I am really happy about that. I am at a time in my life when it's OK to be selfish and do my own thing, and that is exactly what I'm doing. A lot of friends my age are getting engaged and married, and some are already on their second kid, and I want all of that eventually, but not right now. A friend of mine at the station who gives me lots of good advice told me he doesn't see me getting married until my late twenties...28 or 29! It freaked me out to hear him say that, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he's probably right. And to be honest, I don't have that "time is running out" feeling either. Actually, "finding" someone is about the last thing I want to even think about at this point in my life. The only someone I want to find is a cute puppy--in a year!

I've now been out of school for a year, which makes me feel old. But it IS awesome not to have to study or do homework or take quizzes ever again! And I've been working at a "real" job for about a year now, so that makes me feel a little more like a real grown-up. Also, a member of the HSM cast told me yesterday that I'm his first adult friend. Really? Oh yeah, I AM an adult! But I still feel like I'm just a kid a lot of the time.

And I still don't like coffee.

Happy Birthday, Blog!

My blog is one year old today! Happy birthday, Blog!!! :)

Things are going great. I'm having a blast with HSM rehearsals and making lots of friends. People there are so friendly, talented, and fun! I know this summer will go so fast.

I watched the premiere of MTV's "The Search for Elle Woods." That's right, they are casting the lead in a Broadway show using a cable reality TV show. I know. But it is entertaining, and I think it will be a good way to give people a closer look at musical theatre. But so many of the girls on that show are SOOOO full of themselves. Here are some things they actually SAID on camera:

"I would say on a scale of one to ten, my voice is...a ten." (PS, the girl who said this didn't make the top ten cut.)
"I love the sound of my voice. I love hearing it, I love how it feels...It's like heaven."
"I feel like I really zen with Elle Woods." (What???)
"I think Elle Woods and I are like twin sisters but with different hair color."

OK, so that should be a blast to watch, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot about auditioning and what it really takes to get on Broadway. Besides getting cast in a reality TV show.

Also, the Bachelorette had yet ANOTHER 2-hour episode last night...they are really moving these guys through! I only lost one of the guys I liked--Richard, the science teacher. But I think it was a good decision for Deanna to make; they were both talking a lot about feeling chemistry between them, and she obviously wasn't feeling it (by the way, did NOBODY at ABC pick up on that pun, with him being a science teacher??!! Get on the ball, people! I was expecting some cheesy line about "chemistry with the science teacher" but not once did I hear it!). It was so awkward when he was trying to find a way to plant a kiss on her and "brushed her hair out of her face" when her hair was in a ponytail and her bangs were back, which equals no hair actually IN her face...I almost couldn't watch, I felt so bad for him because it was so obviously awkward. Almost as awkward as when Deanna stopped their Cinderella pumpkin carriage in the middle of a street in LA to LITERLLY kick Richard to the curb. A taxi was there to pick him up, and I was like, "How do they do this, do they have like walkie-talkies so they know where they are and can call the cab to pick him up?" Creepy.

Single-dad Jason did much better on his one on one date. He finally told Deanna about his son Ty and she was very receptive to it. What I loved was how much he could be himself now that the most important thing in his life was out in the open. And what was so great was that a fantastic exchange followed--Jason asked Deanna about her mom, and she really opened up about the actual experience of losing her mom and how it's affected her personality. Then she said no one she dated had ever wanted to know about her mom. What? Whatever, as long as that means Jason gets to stay! The next great part was when they were both feeling the mutual attraction in the observatory and he asked her if he could kiss her. I LOVED that. I think there is something so sweet about a guy asking to kiss you because A) it's polite and respectful, B) it eliminates that uncomfortable, awkward, and potentially disastrous effect of trying to just "feel out" the right moment, and C) if a guy asks, it's a lot more likely (in my opinion) that the girl will be like, "Aww sure, what the hell?" because she doesn't feel pressured. Deanna does a really great thing later and gives Jason a certificate that says she's had a star named after Ty. Jason is so visibly touched that I almost cried watching this. And Deanna played it super-smart and sensitive here because this could go one of two ways--he doesn't make it to the end but has this great thing to take back to his son, OR they get married and have this great story to tell Ty about what happened when they started dating. Besides that they met on national television. Ok, anyway...

Fred got a rose when they went to see Ellen, which I was so pumped about! Ellen had some surprisingly mature and insightful advise for Deanna about the boys. I was so glad she kind of pulled Fred out of the background, because he seems like such a sweetie and I feel like he's getting lost in the shuffle, and he has yet to have any true one-on-one time with Deanna...there's always another guy around.

I was glad Brian made it back, because I haven't seen really any one-on-one interaction with him and Deanna yet either, but I like him from what I've seen.

I'm soooo glad that Mister Older and Wiser, Guy's Guy, Motivational Speaker Ron didn't get a rose this week. I love how he gave HIMSELF a motivational speech on his way back to his barber shop down by the river: "Deanna didn't reject me; she chose other guys." Also known as, she rejected you. He and Deanna has this talk before the rose ceremony that was like...

Deanna - We always talk in depth and serious and I want to have fun with you. So tell me something fun about you.
Ron - Where do I even begin? Everything about me is fun. Long pause, looooong, smug stare from Ron.

I would've been like. "Ok, so...go. Like what? What's fun? This isn't fun."

Also, Canada Paul went home. Frankly, I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did. Twilly continued to surprise America by winning another rose and living to tell another long-winded, pointless story. (I shouldn't make fun of him; my stories tend to be of the same quality.)

Jesse is growing on me more and more, and I think he's really playing it smart. He shows up dressed weird, acting wild and crazy, and we're all like "no way." But I guarantee ABC was like, "Deanna, if you keep this guy around for a week or two, we'll give you a helicopter ride." And then we find out that this guy is actually pretty cool and a little bit of a sweetie-pie, and that he looks like when the Beast turns into the Prince in Beauty and the Beast...surprisingly handsome. THEN he shows up this week in a very nice suit and tie. Now that we already love his personality, he's showing us that he can be a gentleman and dress to impress so we don't have to be embarrassed in public with him. (I'm using the royal "We" to include Deanna and all of us watching.) So, go Jesse!

OK, I think that is all I've got. I just thought my blog deserved a nice big blog entry on its birthday! I can't believe it's been a year!

Until later!

high school drama

I've been thinking about high school a lot lately.

Which is really weird, because I'm not one of those people who look back very often. I treasure memories of high school, college, and everything in between, before, and since. But I don't dwell regretfully on the "good old days" or anything. I'm not an Uncle Rico.

But lately it's all been coming back.

I think it's easy to see why...first, I just started rehearsals for a play called "High School Musical," which is obviously about high school. And so it's making me think back to that high school mentality--how you define yourself by what you do, how you dress, and who you hang out with. Which of course gets me thinking about who I was and what I did in high school.

Plus, a lot of the show's cast actually ARE in high school, or just graduated, so for the first time in a long time I'm hearing and seeing bits and pieces of that high school mentality...the things that are and seem so important, cool, or funny.

AND, this weekend was Graduation Weekend for all the area schools, which got me thinking about my high school graduation and just being a high school senior in general...what we were all thinking and doing and feeling.

THEN, I went home yesterday for a cookout at my mom and dad's, and they had a bunch of my dad's high school classmates over. They are a really neat group of people, and I had so much fun hearing their stories. My favorite story is one we ask my dad to tell us all the time, but I requested it yesterday thinking it would be entertaining with everyone telling it...and I was right. It's the story of how they stole their rival school's mascot, a stuffed wildcat, the day before their big rivalry basketball game. It is a GREAT story.

Well, I never did anything that crazy in high school, but it did get me thinking about some of my favorite times back at NHS. And the fact that the last time I did any theatre was in high school...has been bringing back lots of memories about high school drama. The department, not the actual "drama" drama. Ok, and the actual "drama" drama. In a fun way. It's weird to think back on the fights and rivalries and stuff and just how...SERIOUS everything was. When looking back, the reasons we had for getting upset just make me laugh. I don't know...I don't have anything profound to say about it. Just...that I had some great times in high school. And that even the bad memories are good memories, in a way, if that makes any sense. Aaaaaanyways....that's all I've got.

Until later! :)

fabulous

Um...so forget about the haircut, because I can't get my hair cut for the next two months.

Because I'm Sharpay!!!!!!

why am i still UP????

As I start writing this, it's ten after seven in the morning. This is what happens on Friday nights; I sleep my normal hours Friday after work, so then I wake up Friday evening still on my work schedule. If this were a work day, I'd have just finished my show and be writing cut-ins for the Early Show. But since it's Saturday, I'm laying in bed watching Arrested Development and seeing the sunlight increase through my bedroom window blinds.

I have a lot to accomplish today. At 10 this morning we have our station's first softball practice (although it may not be much of a practice; I guess there's a chance we won't even be able to get on the field). Still, I'm excited and yes, a little nervous, because I am not very athletic. And although I know no one is expecting anything out of me, I also know I'm going to have to play a lot since we have to have 4 girls play in every game and not very many girls are signed up. So I might try to find some sort of "Softball for Dummies" reference...I know, what kind of nerd does research on a sport she's about to play? Me, that's what kind.

Also, I have an audition coming up (Monday) for Civic Theater's summer season, and I am waaaay under-prepared. I need to find a monologue and a song. I've been looking through all my music here and I feel like I need to find something different. And I have absolutely NO monologues, so I'm going to go to the library today to find some. I think there is a good one from "Our Town" that I might try. It only has to be a minute long, so it shouldn't be too hard to work it up in the next couple of days.

Then the Glee Club's End of Season show is tonight. It should be fun; this will be my first time seeing the Glee Club without Brian Breed as the director, believe it or not, so I'm sure it will be interesting. Also, we just got the press release yesterday that PMO hired a new director, and apparently he'll be at the show, so it might be possible to meet him. I am sure a lot of Glee Club moms will be swarming him, so I doubt I'll actually get to speak with him, but it might be nice to meet his wife and kids, if the chance arises. Or not. To tell the truth, I'm just glad everything was still normal around there when I graduated, so I don't have to be as concerned with all the changes anymore.

And then tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I'm planning to go to my aunt's to have dinner with the rest of the family. Aunt Julie called and invited me, which made me feel really good (not that I wouldn't have been welcome, but it's just nice to get an invitation by phone...kind of makes me feel grown-up in a way, as silly as that may sound!) I would kind of like to do flowers for Mom, Jules, and Mamaw, but I need to figure out if I should do that today or what. I also want to find some really great cards...one of the bookshops near campus has greeting cards that make me wanna wet myself. So luckily, all of these errands are on the same side of town and hopefully I will accomplish them in decent time today! I just wish places were open earlier so I could get started now.

I wonder what time the library opens...

filmy

I rented a couple of movies that I had wanted to see in the theaters when they came out, but never got to. And I just have to plug Redbox Rentals here...a buck for a 24-hour rental of a new release is a pretty good deal! Anyway, I haven't "reviewed" any media picks in a long time, so I thought I'd tell you what I thought of these two.

Nancy Drew

The Flick: Inspired by the iconic children's mystery book series, the movie follows girl-sleuth extraordinaire Nancy Drew as she leaves her small-town home of River Heights for a few months in California with her father, Carson Drew, who requests that Nancy give up sleuthing. She experiences a new school full of overly-trendy, materialistic teenagers who don't seem to get her old-fashioned, polite, and wholesome ways. She also goes against her father's wishes and undertakes the mystery of the old house where she and her father are living--a cold case involving the death of the movie star who had lived--and died--in that house.

The Cast: The movie stars Emma Roberts (niece of Julia) as Nancy Drew, and to me she was the most recognizable actor in the film (with the exception of Bruce Willis, who has a cameo). Rachel Leigh Cook, Chris Kattan, and Adam Goldberg also appear in the movie. Other than that, I didn't recognize any of the cast. This may be part of the reason why I felt like the acting was mediocre. Emma and the young actors supporting her are adorable and funny, but it's evident that most of them have little to no experience. Emma has a very TV-sitcom style of acting, which is probably because she has her own TV show. That cute, quick, and slightly bratty affectation that probably makes her so popular on TV is exactly what keeps her from being believable on film, especially as this classic character.

The Story: I feel like the writing for this movie was under-developed and disconnected. I think the writers had a lot of good ideas about what it would be like to put old-fashioned Nancy in a modern, West Coast high school setting. Those ideas are what caused the trailer to make this movie look so funny. Then there was the mystery aspect--a built-in guarantee for action, adventure, and some fun special effects. And there is even a storyline that follows Nancy and Carson's father-daughter relationship as well as the void left by Nancy's mother, who died when Nancy was young.

But somehow all of these ideas didn't ever get tied together for the hilarious, thrilling, and heartwarming story it should have been. Several of these little plot points were never really explained; you could see where the story meant to go, but the elements weren't there. A montage of scenes shows Nancy excelling and failing to fit in at her new school. This introduces Inga and Trish, two materialistic and rude girls who are equally weirded out and intrigued by Nancy. Of course, what we should see is these two girls starting to form a friendship with Nancy in spite of their teenage capacity for loathing. But what we see is a hippucy sequence of interaction between the girls that somehow ends ends in them being friends. We never have that moment where Nancy teaches the girls something and then the girls come through for Nancy in a big way. We just get the girls flopping onto Nancy's bed and showing her their new penny loafers, thus endorsing her vintage style. And now they're best friends?! All they take away from this experience is a new pair of shoes?! That doesn't do a lot for me.

And that storyline doesn't tie in to the mystery plotline at all. At random times, Nancy's friends are thrown in to helping her with her sleuthing, but they never really get invested in solving the case (with the exception of her hometown friend Ned Nickerson). Ned is actually my favorite character. Played by the adorable Max Thieriot, he seems to be the most developed and least overacted role in the film. He obviously is in love with Nancy, and seems to be the one person who gets Nancy and knows what makes her happy--sleuthing and her Roadster. But he's in that kind of high-school relationship where you've been friends for so long that now you don't know how to get the point across that you really like each other. And Max plays this card so well. But other than Ned, no one seems to take the case seriously, until all of a sudden Nancy is catapulted into one dangerous situation after another and now it's action/adventure time. Even the mystery is a little lame, and the people and clues are all sort of loosely connected.

I don't think I'm expecting too much from this movie; after all, I liked the High School Musical movies. I like movies that are meant for 12-year-old girls. But this one disappointed me. I think this movie had the potential to be fun for kids and yet charming for older audiences. But it turned out to be a Disney Channel Original-caliber fluff piece with a couple of nice moments.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

The Flick: Mr. Magorium is a 243-year-old eccentric who owns a toy shop. Ready to depart from the world, he attempts to pass the store on to his 23-year-old store manager, Molly Mahoney. In doing this, he hires Henry the accountant to help set things in order for Mahoney. However, Mahoney doesn't want to accept the fact that Mr. Magorium must go sometime or the fact that she must take responsibility for a magical toy store.

The Cast: Dustin Hoffman stars as the magical, silly, and ultimately wise Mr. Magorium. He's one of my favorite actors, so it's hard for me not to like him. That being said, he is able to play this eccentric character with an incredible sense of integrity. Natalie Portman stars opposite Hoffman as Mahoney. I think the last thing I saw Portman in was "V for Vendetta," so it was fun to see her in a such a playful film and role. She balances her obviously ability for depth with a lovable capacity for cuteness, which combines to sell this character--a 23-year-old former child music prodigy who is trying to find a "sparkle" within herself to lead her from childhood to her next step in life. It may just be the short haircut, but she has this Julie Andrews quality that allows her to be the child in some situations and the grown-up in others; to be reassuring to people around her although she is ultimately confused and worried on the inside.

Jason Bateman and Zach Mills round out the cast as, respectively, the uptight accountant Henry and the 9-year-old, imaginative hat collecter Eric. Although at opposite ends of the personality spectrum, Henry and Eric both relate in their inability to relate to and make friends with other people. I love Bateman from "Arrested Development," and it was easy to see him as a workaholic with an intense need to experience a childhood that he probably left too early--similar to his role as Michael Bluth. Mills has this quirky, animated quality that really works for him, as he plays a kid that seems at many times to be as imaginative, brilliant, and wise as Mr. Magorium himself. Watching him bring out the child in Henry is so rewarding.

The Story: The film is written and directed by Zach Helms, who also wrote "Stranger Than Fiction." This guy is, I'm pretty sure, a genius. He has a writing style that is so literary; you would swear he had adapted his films from a book written by some great author. Nope; HE is the great author. And his vision for this story is so clearly threaded throughout the film. I don't understand why this movie got as poor reviews as it did. Anyone with a soul should be able to appreciate the highly imaginative and yet amazingly simple ideas in this story--the difficulty of moving from childhood to adulthood, the importance of believing in yourself, and the need for friendship. Mr. Magorium, wanting to help Mahoney with all of these aspects of her life, becomes the philosophic voice of the movie. And so many of his lines can stand alone as great quotes. When explaining to Mahoney that he must leave at some point, he has this great line about how the play "King Lear" ends...

"When King Lear dies in Act Five, do you know what William Shakespeare has written? He’s written, 'He Dies.' That's all, nothing more. No fan fare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the most influential work of the dramatic literature is, 'He Dies.' It takes Shakespeare’s genius to come up with, he dies.

I know, right??! Another great example is when Magorium is explaining to Henry why he needs his affairs set in order: "I fell so completely in love with these shoes, I bought enough pairs to last my whole lifetime. This is my last pair."

I don't understand why this movie wasn't given more credit. Being released amid a flood of fantasy films, this one still manages to show great originality in story, setting, and overall delivery. I was in tears like 3/4 of the time I was watching. It was touching, moving, inspiring, and very charming.

I'll probably go buy my own copy.

Stellar Saturday

Today turned out to be a much different day than I expected...

First, I went to an audition workshop for High School Musical, which the Civic Theatre is producing this summer. I am really hoping to do this show, since you may know I'm a teeny bit obsessed with HSM. So I went to this workshop, and here's the thing--looks-wise, I can pass for a high-schooler, but when I start talking, you can tell I'm older. So hopefully I won't get screwed in the casting and I'll get to play a high schooler, not an adult. Because the adults don't sing and dance. Honestly, I'd rather not have a speaking part and be a kid in the background singing and dancing, than have an adult role with lots of lines. But it was so weird because everyone else there was actually IN high school (or middle school) and so they'd be like "what grade are you in?" And I'd be like "Uhhhh...Purdue." Haha. So for the first time I'm having to lie about my age. Not really, though. When you sign up for auditions, you have to write your age down, so there's a big ol' 23 next to my name.

Oh well, hopefully I can still pull it off. I feel like I did really well, actually. My acting came back to me a little, plus I've watched this movie so many times, I felt like I knew what was going on with the lines enough to make some choices about how to play different roles. My dancing was solid, too. I don't think I'll have trouble with the dance auditions. The best part was when we were doing some staged readings with scenes from the script. We had to organize ourselves and assign ourselves to roles, so in the first scene I volunteered to play Ms. Darbus, the eccentric, long-winded drama teacher, because I thought it would be a fun way to loosen up. And they liked it! But again, that's an adult part, so I'm hoping to be cast younger, not older. In the next one, they sort of assigned roles, and put me as Gabriella, who is the female lead...a shy brainiac who wants to try her hand at being onstage. I am not a fan of the character in the movie...she's just too syrupy, but I tried really hard to play her with as much sweetness and integrity as possible, without being a total cheeseball. And then they had us go back in the scene because they wanted to change something about an exchange between two characters, Sharpay (the role I really want!) and Kelsi. And then they were like, "Let's do it again, but Lisa come over here and be Sharpay."

Yes!!!!!

Even if I don't get the part in the show, I am just so happy that I got to play her in this one scene...because it's one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Basically, Sharpay is a spoiled brat who controls the drama club and always gets the lead roles. Kelsi is the show's composer, a very softspoken, meek individual. And in this scene, Sharpay basically lets Kelsi have it for even suggesting that Sharpay may not land the lead this time.

And I got to do that scene! It was so fun! And I feel like I did really well!

I will say that it's funny coming back into a theatre setting after so long. By the end of high school, I was friends with so many people in drama that it really felt like a little family. But I had almost forgotten how much of an outsider you feel like when you first encounter a new drama group. It was like being in 7th grade and trying out for my high school's production of "The Nutcracker" all over again...the directors are super-warm and friendly to the people who obviously have been involved before, and there's no sort of trying to treat everyone the same. It's almost like all the inside jokes are aired out in front of everyone with no regard for the new people who have no idea what the jokes mean. Then all the directors keep telling you to be bigger, give more, and that the weirder it feels, the better. There's certainly no effort to try to make people feel less intimidated or more included. Basically, the point of drama is to make you as uncomfortable as possible.

But I know that the great thing is, once you get to know those people, you get really close to them and by showtime, you really DO feel like a family. I think it's just important to remember how it feels to come join a family full of people you know nothing about.

But anyway, auditions are in May, so I'll keep you updated!

Also, I caught up with someone I should've been talking to more in the past few years...we probably talked on the phone for a couple of hours, and the more we talked the more I felt so blessed to have someone I can relate to about so many things. Then I was on the phone with my dad for like three hours after that, trying to figure out how to get some video converting software on my computer. Then I got a message from the female sports anchor wanting to grab dinner, since she was done at the station. Then it turned into a little station girls' night out. We had said female sports anchor, the weekend anchor, a reporter, the weekend meteorologist, and me, the morning producer. We were rolling deep. We went for dinner and then hopped across the street for a couple drinks. And it was so fun! And now I'm home, pooped for the day and ready to crash.

Until you read again!
Lis